A/N: When I heard this line originally, I found it cute. But then I thought about it...and this story happened.

It was over. The extraterrestrial terrorists had been sent to their inter-dimensional prison. And the horrible machine that had tried to transform the Earth was now permanently decommissioned. Blanketing the desolated city was complete silence and stillness. The only movement was of two people in flight.

Clark held Lois tenderly against his chest as he landed on the dusty ground. He had almost lost her and himself to the pull of the Phantom Zone, but the lingering terror was being slowly replaced by a warmth that swirled inside him as he stared into her eyes. Although he had only known her for a short time, he felt a strong connection with her. And judging from the way she was looking at him, she felt it too. After all that had happened today, all the fear and death-defying they had endured was worth it for this moment: their first kiss. It was passionate and sensual yet a little hesitant underpinned by longing and a confusing sense of rightness in the act. They parted, both of them were panting but if it was from the kiss or the ordeal, neither of them were sure.

"You know they say it's all down hill after the first kiss," Lois quipped breathlessly.

He smiled a little. "I think that only counts when you're kissing a human."

He closed his eyes and leaned down to kiss her again only to meet a barrier stopping him from reaching her. He opened his eyes to see that it was her hand separating them. Snubbed and thoroughly confused, he stared from the hand to Lois and his heart dropped a little. Lois was giving him a different look from five seconds ago and it resembled none of pleasant feelings that had lived there before.

"Wait, what?" she said with a bit of an edge to her voice.

Clark sagged a fraction.

In his lifetime, he had broken a lot of records. Speed, strength, etc, but he had never thought 'early relationship sabotage' would be one of them. Truthfully though, he had no idea what he did to deserve this sudden change of heart from Lois.

Not knowing what action to take and fearing he would make another mistake, he just stared at her dumbly. However, after a beat this silence seemed to irritate her more, so he forced himself to speak.

"What?" he said innocently as a lamb.

She pulled away from him. "You just said it was only all downhill if you're kissing a human."

Now it was Clark's turn to furrow his brow, though this time in confusion. He had said that. He had thought it was cute. He had thought she liked witty banter.

"Yeah?"

She gave him an incredulous look. "I wasn't kissing a human, but you were."

'Dammit.' Mentally he slapped himself. He hadn't thought about that before he said it, but she was right. He was just trying to be smooth! But his attempt at suavity ended the same way his first attempts at flight had. What he would give to be in the Phantom Zone at that moment. Finally, he got to kiss this wonderful, intelligent, beautiful woman and in trying to be cute, and impressive in brains as well as brawn, he proved the opposite.

He chanced a glance at her. Her hair was windblown with strands framing her face, her left eyebrow arched expectantly, and her mouth a thin line. He'd rather be facing the Kryptonian soldiers than the wrath of the toughest woman he had ever met (second only to his mother). It didn't help that again he was at a loss for what to do. This time instead of silence, however, he decided to feign confusion. He figured it shouldn't be that hard to believe; he'd already shown her how stupid he could be.

"So?"

Her eyes narrowed and she placed her hands on her hips. "So it's all down hill for you?"

"No, no!" He raised his hands in a placating way. "I was just—I didn't mean—I was trying to be clever?" he finished lamely.

There was a long awkward silence punctuated by her glare which was part annoyed, part affectionate, and part amused. Her stare was like she was looking at a puppy that just got caught doing something naughty, but was too damn cute and repentant to stay mad at. It was his blue eyes probably. Clark realized that perhaps Lois enjoyed her ability to make him squirm, but he took comfort from the fact that at least a part of her still liked him.

Then suddenly there was a loud crash down the ruined expanse in front of them. A large piece of debris moved unnaturally out-of-the-way. Intrigued, Clark used his enhanced vision to look down the flattened area to see a lone figure in black step out of the rubble.

'Thank you Zod.'

Clark turned to Lois, screwing up his face to hide his relief.

"I'm sorry, I have to go." He gave her a quick peck on the cheek and flew swiftly away.

"Cl-Kal!"

"Sorry!" he called back.